Kentucky Retired Teachers Alarmed at Funding Cut for Health Care

A proposal by Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin impacting the health coverage of retired teachers is causing alarm among many educators. Bevin has proposed eliminating $145 million in state funding for the health insurance of retired teachers.

After months of watching Kentucky lawmakers grapple with possible changes that could affect teacher pensions, the proposed cut in the upcoming two-year budget was another blow to retired educators.

Tim Abrams is executive director of the Kentucky Retired Teachers Association. He said teachers who have dedicated 27 years or more to students feel like they have not been shown much respect in pension and budgeting considerations.

“Our phones have been ringing off the hook from teachers all over the state, retired teachers wanting to know, ‘What’s going to happen to my insurance? What do I need to do? Who do I need to call?’ And they’re very alarmed,” said Abrams.

He said the proposed funding cut to health insurance could affect more than 10,000 retired teachers in the state, including those who are currently on the Kentucky Employees Health Plan and others who are eligible for that insurance.

State officials said retired teachers are only guaranteed access to group health insurance.

Abrams said if state funding is cut, retired teachers who would be affected would have to pay about $6,000 a year for health insurance.

“I think it will hurt attracting new teachers and it may even hurt with existing teachers that are in the field. It will hurt both recruitment and retention," said Abrams. "I feel like teachers across the state feel like they haven’t been shown a lot of respect through this entire process.”

He said although educators’ salaries are relatively modest, pension and health care benefits help retain dedicated teachers.

Abrams said KRTA and others are contacting legislators about Gov. Bevin’s proposed budget cut in an effort to have the Kentucky General Assembly take action to keep the funding for health insurance, and to keep the promise teachers believe the state made them to them when they signed on to teach Kentucky’s children.

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin’s proposed budget recommends eliminating state funding for 70 programs. One of those is a volunteer program that serves individuals with disabilities.

The ARC of Kentucky has volunteer chapters across the state that provide educational and community support for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities, including autism and Down Syndrome.

Funding for ARC was already eliminated in July 2017, halfway through the last two-year state budget cycle. The group could no longer afford its paid executive director, so Sherri Brothers began in August 2017 as interim executive director – as a full-time volunteer.

Gov. Matt Bevin says his proposal to overhaul Kentucky’s troubled pension systems has enough support to pass out of the state legislature, despite skepticism from lawmakers and intense opposition from state workers.

In an interview on the Leland Conway Show on WHAS in Louisville, Bevin said that when the proposal was unveiled the leaders of the state House and Senate “said straight up that they had the votes to pass that bill.”

A panel of economists is more pessimistic about Kentucky’s tax revenue than it was a few months ago. The group revised downward its prediction of how much Kentucky will make in tax revenue by the end of the fiscal year in June.

The Consensus Forecasting Group on Friday predicted that the state will be $156.1 million short of initial projections, down from $155 million predicted in October.

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin says the state will undergo a round of spending cuts in the upcoming legislative session to set aside more money for the struggling pension systems amid sluggish revenue growth.

In 2016, Bevin and the Democratic-led House and Republican-led Senate crafted a budget that set aside more money for the public retirement systems than ever before: $1.2 billion out of the state’s $21 billion biennial budget.